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Derby d'Italia: Classic Clashes

Torino monopolised Italian football in the 1940s, but the tragic Superga Air Disaster towards the decade’s end effectively extinguished them as a force and left the 1949/50 Scudetto race wide open. Round 11 pitted together table-topping Juventus and second-placed Inter, and it was the latter who raced into a 2-0 lead, with Faas Wilkes rocketing home the opener and masterfully laying on the second for Benito Lorenzi. Having had Wilkes under his tutelage while at the Netherlands’ reins the previous year, Juve coach Jesse Carver knew all about the inside forward’s danger. The Englishman was still getting to grips with the Italian language, though, and it was now clear his pre-match instructions for Alberto Piccinini to stick to the Dutchman like glue, and for Rinaldo Martino to abandon his attacking instincts and drop back into midfield, had not been understood. Carver, therefore, immediately ran onto the pitch, frantically ushered his two aforementioned players towards him, and drilled home his point using physical motions rather than verbal explanation. Wilkes was instantly neutralised and though I Bianconeri’s spearhead was now one man shy, its components included some of the finest forwards on the planet. John Hansen halved the deficit, before thumping home the equaliser on the hour following magical left-flank footwork from fellow Dane Karl Aage Praest. Amedeo Amadei almost restored Inter’s lead, only to see his effort hooked off the line by Martino, before the 21-year-old Giampiero Boniperti rattled the visitors’ crossbar and Hansen forced Angelo Franzosi into a superb save. With 15 minutes remaining, Piccinini relinquished his role as Wilkes’ bodyguard for a seldom dart into the opposition box. The broken-Italian-with-a-Liverpudlian-twang wrath of Carver seemed inevitable, but the softly-spoken Roman prevented that by scoring his first goal in four-and-a-half years to complete a terrific comeback.

Inter Milan 6-0 Juventus4 April 1954, Serie A, San Siro

I Nerazzurri needed victory to overtake their opponents down the final straight; I Bianconeri required only a draw to maintain pole position, and they were confident of achieving it. Juventus were, after all, unbeaten in 13 games, while Inter were still hurting from a 2-0 defeat by their other great enemies, AC Milan, just two weeks earlier. But if they had been undone by Gunnar Nordahl and Jorgen Sorensen on that occasion, the reigning Italian champions’ own solitary Swede would headline this one. Lennart Skoglund was what Garrincha and George Best would become: an absurdly gifted footballer by day and a playboy by night – one who Inter chiefs would often, vexingly, spend the early hours of matchdays dragging out of Milanese bars. Such was the importance of the occasion, and Alfredo Foni’s hunger to mastermind victory over the club he represented so eloquently as a player for 13 years, however, that Skoglund made his bosses an offer: he would refrain from drinking in the days leading up to the game, but if Inter won by three goals or more, they’d have to supply him with two bottles of the finest whisky. Club accepted. Player kept his promise of abstinence before kick-off. Then, once the whistle blew, he rapidly went about securing himself the prize. Skoglund, indeed, took just seven minutes to snap the deadlock, set up Inter’s second for Gino Armano with a delicious back-heel, and drew gasps from the home crowd by executing two patented nutmegs within one breathtaking dribble in a first half in which an injury to Ermes Muccinelli towards its end forced Juve to play on with ten men. Sergio Brighenti dispatched two volleys after the break. Skoglund finished the game with two goals and three assists. Inter finished it with double the three-goal victory required to earn Skoglund a Scotch reward. “I should have demanded four bottles,” he later joked. The result, which remains Inter’s biggest-ever win in I Derby d’Italia, also proved crucial, with the men in black and blue stripes ultimately finishing one point above second-placed Juventus.

Inter Milan 1-1 Juventus19 October 2002, Serie A, San Siro

Inter had led Juve by six points with five rounds remaining in the 2001/02 title race, yet somehow finished two points shy of the boys in black and white, fuelling their will to win the first I Derby d’Italia of the new season. Hector Cuper’s team were nevertheless buoyed by having taken maximum points from their first four games, while Marcello Lippi’s visitors were also unbeaten but back in third, four points off the pace. The tone was set for a war within minutes, with Juventus mountain Idor Tudor clattering Hernan Crespo to the floor and Edgar Davids adding fire by bulldozing into Inter hardman Luigi Di Biagio. And it wasn’t just the fouls, but the chances which began to flow. A gorgeous curler from Bianconeri magician Alessandro Del Piero came agonisingly close to breaking the deadlock, while his striker partner Marcelo Salas, following majestic footwork from Mauro Camoranesi, had a point-blank effort denied by goalkeeper Francesco Toldo. At the other end, the unmarked Crespo ballooned over a header from six yards and then, with Buffon grounded and the goal at his mercy, the Argentinian striker hit the post. With an opportunity-heavy match en route to end goalless, Camoranesi raced on to a defence-piercing Davids pass and was felled by Francesco Coco inside the box. From the resulting penalty, Del Piero masterfully sent Toldo the wrong way and guided the ball into the roof of the net for his first goal against Inter at the San Siro. The Juventus No10 then hit the crossbar with a splendid overhead-kick, before his team-mate Antonio Conte and Inter substitute Domenico Morfeo were sent off for scrapping. With just seconds of the five minutes of added time remaining, Inter earned a corner. Toldo sprinted up for it and somehow got a touch to the ball, which fell down, flicked off team-mate Christian Vieri and dropped over the line for an 11th-hour equaliser.

Part one of this duel had finished Juve 2-2 Inter, or Marco di Vaio 2-2 Adriano. And it was the latter’s third goal of the tie, just seven minutes into the second leg, that tipped the balance in the Milanese goliaths’ favour. Christian Vieri and Kily Gonzalez then both rattled the woodwork for Inter, before Igor Tudor reacted to a rebound to restore parity. Both sides had had penalty appeals waved away before Juventus assumed a numerical advantage on 66 minutes, when Ivan Cordoba was dismissed for scything down the lively Pavel Nedved, who was through on goal. With 12 minutes remaining, the Turin outfit moved on to the cusp of a final date with Lazio when a seldom header from substitute Alessandro Del Piero made it 2-1. However, five minutes into added time, after the referee had twice checked his watch, centre-back Daniele Adani scrambled the ball home to dramatically ensure an additional half-hour. Adani, an unlikely marksman, almost won it for Inter in extra time, but his header was hooked off the line from an unlikely saviour in Del Piero. It was on to penalties and, after the teams had converted their first four attempts apiece, Vieri’s tame effort was saved by Antonio Chimenti, allowing Fabrizio Miccoli to clinch it for Juventus.